About ConvertKr

The short version

ConvertKr is a free toolkit for working with PDFs and images. 27+ tools online, 15 tools in the desktop app. Everything processes on your device — your files never upload to any server. No account needed. No limits. No watermarks.

Built by me, Ahmad Faraz.

How this started

I'm a frontend developer. Been building web apps with React and JavaScript for over 5 years now. Worked at a few companies remotely — Cloudini, Alethea AI, a couple of startups before that. Mostly building interfaces, fixing bugs, optimizing performance. Normal dev stuff.

Outside of work though, I'm apparently the tech support guy for everyone I know. Family, friends, neighbors — anyone with a computer problem ends up calling me. And the number one thing people ask me about? PDFs.

"Can you merge these files?" "Can you make this PDF smaller?" "How do I sign this without printing?" "This form won't let me type on it." "Why is this document sideways?"

Every time, I'd Google "merge pdf free" or "compress pdf online" and use whatever came up first. iLovePDF, SmallPDF, random tools I'd forget the name of by the next day. They worked fine mostly. But a few things kept bugging me.

What bugged me

First — my files were uploading to someone else's server. For a random photo, whatever. But my dad's CNIC scan? My friend's bank statement? Medical reports? That stuff shouldn't be sitting on a server in another country. Most people don't even realize their files leave their device when they use these tools. My friend didn't know until I told her — she thought everything happened on her phone like an app.

Second — the limits. "You've used your 3 free merges today. Upgrade for $9/month." I'm trying to help my dad submit pension documents to his bank. I'm not paying a monthly subscription for something I need twice a month.

Third — I'm a frontend developer. I know JavaScript. I know what PDF.js and pdf-lib can do. I know you can merge, split, compress, edit PDFs entirely in the browser without sending a single byte to any server. The technology exists. So why is every tool uploading my files?

That third point is what actually pushed me to build it. Not some grand business plan. Just frustration + the technical knowledge to do something about it.

Building ConvertKr

I started with the PDF editor because that was the most annoying tool to find for free. Every online PDF editor either watermarked the output or had a 3-page limit. I built one using PDF.js for rendering and pdf-lib for export. Everything client-side. No server.

Then I added merge. Then split. Then compress. Then image tools — convert, crop, compress. Then watermarks, page numbers, rotate, organize. Each tool came from a real situation where someone asked me for help and I thought "I should just build this."

The QR code generator? A friend needed QR codes for his restaurant's table cards. Background remover? Another friend selling phone cases on Daraz needed clean product photos. Passport photo tool? My whole family needed passport renewals and the studio was charging 400 rupees per person for a crop job.

Every tool on ConvertKr exists because someone I know needed it.

The desktop app

The web tools work great but they need internet to load the page. And some people deal with files that are too large for a browser to handle comfortably.

So I built ConvertKr Desktop. Same tools, packaged as an app. Works completely offline — install it once and you never need internet again. Available for Mac, Windows, and Linux. Also free.

I use it myself when I'm at my dad's house where the wifi is slow, or when I'm processing a batch of scanned documents that are 20-30MB each. The desktop app handles large files better than the browser version.

Why it's free

People ask me this a lot. "What's the catch?" There isn't one. Genuinely.

I have a full-time job as a software engineer. ConvertKr isn't how I pay rent. I built it because I needed it, my family needed it, my friends needed it. Putting it online means other people can use it too. That's it.

The website has ads which help cover the hosting costs. The desktop app has no ads, no in-app purchases, nothing. Just tools.

The core tools — merge, split, compress, convert, edit — those will always be free. I don't believe in charging money for something that takes 2 seconds of JavaScript to do.

The privacy thing

I keep saying this and I'll say it again here because it matters: your files never leave your device.

Every ConvertKr tool — web and desktop — processes files using JavaScript in your browser or on your local machine. Nothing uploads to any server. There is no server that handles file processing. The website is just static HTML, CSS, and JavaScript.

You can verify this yourself. Open any tool, turn off your wifi after the page loads, and use the tool. It works. Because there's nothing to upload to.

I built it this way on purpose because I use it for my own family's documents. I'm not going to build a tool that uploads my dad's CNIC to some server.

About me

I'm Ahmad Faraz. Computer Science graduate. Been working as a frontend developer since 2019 — spent time at a few startups and companies building web apps with React, Next.js, and Node.js. Now working as a software engineer full-time.

I like building things that solve real problems for real people. ConvertKr started as a side project to help my family and friends. Turns out a lot of other people have the same problems.

If you have a question, a bug report, a feature request, or just want to say hi:

Email: a.faraz@convertkr.com

And if ConvertKr has been useful to you, . It genuinely makes my day when someone does that.